Monday 3 December 2018

3rd December 2018: Hello Bennu !


Practical details about Bennu and OSIRIS-REx
are available at a glance
on the "asteroidmission.org" website.

Link to: "www.asteroidmission.org/objectives/bennu/"

Monday 26 November 2018

26th November 2018: "InSight" mars mission day


Essential preliminary information relating to the mission
can be found in the JPL "InSight Landing Press Kit".


Sunday 25 November 2018

Robotic Refueling Mission 3 (RRM3)


NASA is now ready for the next experimental step
in its meticulously systematic research
towards developing a reliable outer space filling station.



Sunday 4 November 2018

End of partnership between Luxembourg Government and Planetary Resources Inc.

As a result of the sale of Planetary Resources Inc. 
the Luxembourg Société Nationale de Crédit et d'Investissement
no longer holds any shares in the company,
which now belongs to ConsenSys.


Friday 2 November 2018

Planetary Resources Inc. has changed hands


As announced on the Planetary Resources website on October 31st
"Blockchain venture production studio ConsenSys, Inc.
has acquired the pioneering space company Planetary Resources, Inc.
through an asset-purchase transaction. "




Thursday 1 November 2018

Update on Luxembourg and the space sector


Detailed essential information on Luxembourg's role and place
 in the space sector so far
has been packed into an in-depth report
by Kristi J. Bradford for the CSPS,
the Aerospace Corporation's Center for Space Policy and Strategy.





Thursday 27 September 2018

Wednesday 12 September 2018

LSA Luxembourg Space Agency



As of today tiny Luxembourg has its own small-scale "space agency".

"Luxembourg, September 12, 2018 – The Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) officially launched operations today with the goal of promoting the further economic development of the Grand Duchy’s space industry by attracting businesses, developing human resources, providing innovative financial solutions and supporting educational and research infrastructure.

Unlike many similar organisations abroad, Luxembourg's space agency will not directly conduct research or launch missions, but foster collaboration between key players in the space industry, with the core mission of accelerating the emergence of innovation-driven businesses."

(Scroll down RTL webpage for text in English entitled:
Luxembourg launches business-focused national space agency)


Monday 20 August 2018

The boon of going to the moon


 Ian Whittaker  and Gareth Dorrian 
have highlighted some very good reasons
 why the moon should be first on our galactic itinerary.

Link to: "Five reasons to forget Mars for now and return to the moon"


Friday 17 August 2018

Will the Force be with the Space Miners?


As Paul March-Russell indicates in his 16th August article for The Conversation
there are times when current politics and science fiction seem to overlap.



Monday 30 July 2018

Parker Solar Probe: cool-headed science and technology


NASA have recently published an easy to understand article by Susannah Darling
(with accompanying video material)
providing a detailed explanation as to why the Parker Solar Probe
will be able to cope with heat and extreme temperatures.


Wednesday 4 July 2018

Seeds for weeds in microgravity


A promising experiment involving the humble weed "thale cress" (Arabidopsis thaliana)
is presently being conducted in NASA's advanced plant habitat
on the International Space Station.



[For background information on the scientific value of thale cress 
there is an old article from The INDEPENDENT
that remains quite topical and stimulatingly informative.


Monday 2 July 2018

Bright flash and loud sonic boom


Purdue University News Service has provided a short, useful note 
on a meteoroid that exploded 
over the city of Lipetsk in western Russia in June. 


Sunday 1 July 2018

Hayabusa2 has reached its destination


Japan’s Hayabusa2 space explorer is presently
 at about 20 kilometres from asteroid Ryugu 
(some 280 million kilometres away from Earth)
scanning the surface for suitable touchdown places.



Saturday 16 June 2018

"Spacish, Spacian or Spacese"


Agreeing on a common language
allowing individuals to communicate efficiently
with their fellow human beings 
in the alien territories of outer space
remains one of the great hurdles to cross 
for future astro- and cosmonauts.

Saturday 28 April 2018

NASA's inscrutable ways: discard to replace?


Why has NASA's Lunar Resource Prospector fallen from grace?
Loren Grush, writing for The Verge, is trying to find an answer.



Thursday 26 April 2018

Rick Tumlinson now "chairman emeritus" of DSI


Although Rick Tumlinson, co-founder of Deep Space Industries, is moving on,
this does not mean he is turning his back on the space resources company
that he helped to found in 2012.



Wednesday 7 February 2018

Falcon Heavy and a dummy named "Starman"


Ian Whittaker, writing for The Conversation,
has clearly been impressed by Elon Musk's latest achievement,
but he has not let himself be carried away
by the dummy in the cherry-red roadster
looking for alien hitchhikers in the galaxy.


Thursday 1 February 2018

GovSat-1


Since yesterday GovSat-1 has been up in the sky,
and in a good two weeks' time
of "orbit-raising procedures and in-orbit tests"
it should be ready to become operational
at 36,000 kilometres above the equator
and remain so for the next 15 years.




Sunday 21 January 2018

Heading for Ryugu and Bennu


There has been a meticulously detailed update this week
by Stephen Clark in Spaceflight Now
on JAXA's Hayabusa 2 and NASA's OSIRIS-Rex
journeying towards asteroids Ryugu and Bennu
to collect samples for return to Earth.

Wednesday 17 January 2018

Chinese space research laboratory in Luxembourg


On 16th January 2018
a Memorandum of Understanding was signed 
between the Luxembourg Ministry of the Economy
 and the National Space Science Center 
of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
 to establish a Research Laboratory of Deep Space Exploration in Luxembourg.



Sunday 7 January 2018

"More than just rockets"


"particle.scitech.org.au"

have just published a refreshingly stimulating article
on challengingly futuristic options
for travelling faster and further into deep outer space,
entitled The Trouble with Rockets.